Portable railway and tramway



(No Model.)

J. KERR.

PORTABLBRAILWAY AND TRAMWAY.

No. 316,629. Patented Apr. 28, 18185.

, UNITED STATES JAMES KERR, or LoNDoN, ENGLAND.

PORTABLE RAILWAY AN D TRAMWAY.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 316,629, dated April 28,. 1885.

7 Application filed November 11, 1884. (No model.) Patented in France April 30, 1884, No. 161,825,- in Belgium May 1, 1884,

No. 65,008, and in India May 1, 1884.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, J AMES KERR, of the city of London, England, merchant, have in vented a new and useful Improvement in Portable Railways and Tramways, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates more especially to railways or tramways in which the rail-sections are so connected that they may be readily separated or taken apart for convenience of packing and transport, and may be readily reconnected when it is desired to lay them to form a track.

The invention consists in a novel arrangement and combination of parts, hereinafter particularly described, and pointed out in the claim.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 represents an elevation of one end portion of a rail-section provided with an attachment to receive the end portion of the adjacent section. Fig. 2 is a plan thereof. Fig. 3 is a transverse section on the dotted line .50 at, Fig. 1; and Fig. 4 is asection similar to Fig. 3, but illustrating a slight modification of the invention.

Similar letters of reference designate corresponding parts in all the figures.

D designates the end portion of a rail-section, to the end of which is secured a socket, E, of proper transverse section to receive within it snugly the end portion of the adjacent rail-section. (Not here shown.) This socket E hasa projecting tang or arm, E, havinga flat upper surface, on which the base of the rail-section D rests, and to which said railsection is secured firmly by rivets a, or other suitable devices. The shank or arm E and the socket E" may be produced from a T- shaped blank of plate metal, the head of the Tbeing bent or turned inward on opposite sides in order to form a socket which will fit the base and Web of the next rail-section. The flanges or lips which form the opposite Walls of the socket E may be made wide enough to reach well upward on the web of the rail-section, as shown by full lines in Fig.

3; or such flanges or lips may be short and just embrace the base of the section, as shown in Fig. 4by full lines; or one side of the socket may be extended upward on one side of the rail-web, as shown by dotted lines in Fig. 4, and its place supplied on the other side of the web by a fish-platc, E, as also shown by dotted lines in Fig. 4.

By means of the rivets a or other equivalent means the socket E is permanently connected with one rail'sect-ion, and the end of a second rail-section, which is slipped into the socket, may be there secured by a bolt or rivet inserted transversely through the Web of the rail-section and the socket.

It will be observed that the socket E is so secured to the rail-section D that it is entirely forward of the end thereofiand thereby a narrow space, I), is formed and maintained between the end of the rail-section D and the adjacent end of the socket. Then the socket E and the rail'section D are so combined as to leave the space 1) between them, it will be obvious that if any dirt becomes packed in the socket IE it will be pushed out when the adjacent rail-section is inserted thereinto, and the space I) affords provision for the escape of the dirt. If the rail-section D entered the socket,the dirt therein would have no opportunity to escape when the adjacent rail-section is inserted and would prevent the two rail-sections from coming as near together as is desirable.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The combination, with a rail-section, D, of a socket, E, having a projecting arm or portion, E, which is secured to the base of the rail-section, the socket being arranged entirely beyond the end of the rail-section, so as to maintain between the socket and rail-section a space, b, substantially as and for the purpose herein described.

JAMES KERR.

Witnesses:

H. K. WHITE, W. H. SHAW. 

